Windows 7 on laptop - 32/64 bit?

grumpybadger

grumpybadger

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Paul Beastall
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I'm planning to put Windows 7 on Sue's laptop tomorrow - it's a Core2Duo beasty so will be fine. It has 3Gb RAM and I can't see a way to increase it. Hence my question - 64bit or stick with 32 and why?

Ta

Paul
 
It will be running Photoshop and Lightroom. I don't believe that helps as it is stuck at 3GB RAM. Hence my question. Does 64bit bring any other benefits or hindrances?
 
Is it 'stuck' at 3GB because it's XP (XP imposes the 3GB rule) or is it a physical limitation of the Motherboard?
 
How old is it ?

Laptop makers are carp at producing Windows 7 drivers for the hardware. I *lost* my DVD drive when I installed W7 on my Acer laptop, I had to go back to Vista to get it working again :(
 
From what I can see, it's stuck at 3GB from a hardware limitation. From the Windows 7 upgrade advisor, I can install either 32 or 64 without driver issue.
 
if thats core 2 duo go ahead with 64bit.
I have core solo running 32bit just fine :)
 
grumpybadger said:
From what I can see, it's stuck at 3GB from a hardware limitation. From the Windows 7 upgrade advisor, I can install either 32 or 64 without driver issue.
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Use the 64 bit version, the 3Gb limit is usually caused by 32bit address limitations
 
64bit every time.

The ONLY reason you should need to install 32bit Windows on machines is if you have hadware wihout drivers for 64bit (usually printers and scanners) or bespoke software that may have issues.
 
Put 64 bit on it to allow the use of 64bit versions of LR2 and CS5. See if you can increase the RAM too.

Most manufacturers will fill all RAM slots so you may find you have 2 and an expansion slot which will all have 1GB inserted, these can be swapped out for 2GB SIMMS/DIMMS to increase the RAM. Make sure you get fast RAM if you can soo. I am not sure what Sony are like but DELL put the slowest RAM available (also cheapest) into the laptops and normally in 512MB configurations....
 
AFAIK RAM speed doesn't matter, as long as it's above the FSB speed (which even the slowest RAM usually is in a non overclocked system). The only reason to buy fast RAM is if you intend to overclock your system.
 
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